


it might be better to hold your tongue

by anotherbuskitten



Series: live, die, rinse, repeat [2]
Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-11 07:30:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11709720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anotherbuskitten/pseuds/anotherbuskitten
Summary: “What you do teaches faster, and has a lasting impression, far beyond what you say.”― T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"





	it might be better to hold your tongue

I

Tyr’s first word is fought over. It sounds a garbled mess when he reaches out to hit his father. It’s only later Odin realises his son spoke something that wasn’t a burble and tries desperately to recall it.

He asks the servants who had seen and they fight for the right to report the word to their king.

But when the oldest amongst them says the word was ‘ _mine_ ’ the argument starts up again.

It never ends; that fight, still going when the last son is born, if that first word had been mine, or no, or bad, or dad, or fight, or please.

That was Tyr, always more likely to be fought over than fought for.

 

II

Thor is silent for many, many years after his birth, long past the usual development of a child. Of course, being the prince, no one mentions the boy’s slow mind.

Odin calls it grief. Grief for his dead mother. You know, the one who died before his first breath.

Everyone out of earshot of Odin calls it dumb.

Years later, after the third son arrives, Thor will whisper a secret word and summon storms. Mere days past that his first word will be heralded as ‘ _Loki_.’

That was Thor, dedicated to the wrong things till the end.

 

III

Loki is already speaking when he first meets Asgard ground. He has been for days and his parents have already decided they’ll never know which came first. It never changes from then on; Loki is forever several sentences ahead of everyone else.

So which did come first? The words, or the magic? Even the man himself doesn’t really know.

That was Loki, quick to answer, quicker to confuse.

 

IIII

Balder smiles a week after he’s born and speaks after two. He says ‘ _hail_ ’ while Odin and Frigga smile over him. People say it to him often enough that he probably thinks it’s his name. They’re all so pleased at the possibility of an heir who isn’t enraged, stupid, or evil that they’ve already given him their full allegiance.

Not that they don’t love the other princes. They just don’t… _love_ the other princes.

This is Balder, he’s going places.

**Author's Note:**

> Next Up: First kill!


End file.
